How web hosting in the UK differs to hosting your website in a different country

When making purchasing decisions, we all weigh up the benefits of working with a local supplier against those of working with an overseas company. In the world of web hosting, when we often never see what we’re buying, perhaps we don’t give it quite so much thought. In this article we will explain some of the advantages of hosting a website in the UK over the rest of the world.

How web hosting in the UK differs to hosting your website in a different country

Performance benefits

If you are looking for a host for a UK website - either a .co.uk domain or a site that attracts or is targeted at a predominantly UK audience - there a performance benefits to be made from choosing a web host that is also based in the UK.

Although we now like to think of the internet as being wireless or cloud-based, its basic functionality is dependent on data travelling along wires. The data from your website has to make the journey down that network of wires to the device of the person accessing your website. The shorter the journey, the better the site performance will appear to that person.

So, if you’re hosting a UK website it makes sense to ensure your server is in the UK.

Search engine ranking benefits

Google’s Matt Cutts has previously revealed that server location - in terms of the IP address of your server - does have a bearing on search engine rankings.

So, if your server is based in the UK, it is more likely to rank well on google.co.uk than google.fr or google.es. Again, if it is a UK audience you are trying to reach, there are benefits to be found in hosting your site in the UK.

Data sovereignty benefits

If you website is hosted on a server based in the UK, it is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998, which is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK.

Host your website in a different territory and your data will be governed by the law in that territory. There might be instances where that is of advantage, but it is certainly advisable to research this thoroughly before making any decisions.

Weather benefits

While the UK is prone to bad weather, it doesn’t tend to suffer the greatest extremes that the world has to offer. When you think about natural disasters, for example, you are on relatively safe ground in the UK compared to some parts of the world.

The physical hardware and wires we’ve previously mentioned are not immune to the effects of earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes or anything else the natural world might throw at them.